1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory apparatus, and more particularly, to a technology for generating a block control command signal used for controlling operation of a memory block.
2. Related Art
A memory area of a semiconductor memory apparatus is divided into a large number of memory blocks. Each memory block can be in a block lock state, a block unlock state, and a block lock-down state, where a particular state can be entered via a block control command.
A programming operation, a data erase operation, and an over-write operation are not allowed for a memory block in the block lock state or the block lock-down state. However, the programming operation, the data erase operation, and the over-write operation are permitted for a memory block in the block unlock state.
A block control command generation circuit is needed to generate block control commands for each memory block. Accordingly, if a semiconductor memory apparatus has 1024 memory blocks, then there may need to be 1024 block control command generation circuits corresponding to the 1024 memory blocks. As the number of memory blocks increase, more chip real estate will be taken up by the block control command generation circuits.